It Doesn't Make Sense

It Doesn't Make Sense

"Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution. " -- Theodosius Dobzhanski

This quote has been repeated so often that it is generally accepted at face value without question. It appears on the Saint Louis University Department of Biology web page and a faculty web page at the Alabama School of Mathematics and Science.

Removing the double negative, it says, "Everything in biology makes sense only in the light of evolution. " If everything in biology is the result of evolution, then everything in biology should make sense in light of evolution. But many modern biological observations don't make sense in light of the nineteenth-century theory of evolution. .

Let's look at some examples.

Two Sidewinders

Here in the Mojave Desert we are all too familiar with the sidewinder rattlesnake. The sidewinder doesn't make sense in light of evolution. How could a snake evolve an organ that manufactures and stores toxic substances in its own body without killing itself? How likely is it that the toxic chemical storage facility would accidentally become connected to hollow fangs? Is there some plausible explanation for how the action of biting would naturally cause the venom to squirt out the fangs? How is it that the poison that kills the rat doesn't kill the snake that eats the poisoned rat?

Here in the Mojave Desert we are also familiar with the AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missile. (It was designed here at China Lake. ) How did an infrared seeker get connected to an autopilot which is connected to steering fins on a tube containing a rocket motor and high explosives attached to a triggering mechanism? Clearly, those things were consciously assembled to create something that destroys airplanes. It is just as clear that the venom delivery system in a sidewinder rattlesnake is a weapon system that is the result of planning and execution, not accident and selection.

It doesn't make sense that poison would evolve in snakes. Nor does it make sense that similar chemical warfare systems would evolve in jellyfish, frogs, insects, and plants.

Born-again Caterpillars

Consider the life-cycle of a monarch butterfly. 1 The monarch butterfly egg hatches into a caterpillar. The caterpillar eats leaves and grows until such time as it gets the irresistible urge to hang, upside-down, helpless for about 12 hours, while its body undergoes some internal changes. Then, it starts wiggling, and the caterpillar's skin breaks just behind the head. As it wiggles, the head, skin, and legs fall off, leaving just a capsule-shaped chrysalis. This chrysalis hangs there helpless for a week or two. During this time, its innards dissolve into a jelly-like substance that is comparable to the yolk and white of an egg. Just as the yolk and white of an egg congeal somehow into a chicken, the goo inside the chrysalis congeals into a butterfly. Finally, the chrysalis breaks, a butterfly wiggles out, and migrates 3,000 miles.

How does this make sense in light of evolution? What is the survival advantage of hanging helpless for a week or two? What series of genetic accidents could have caused this to happen? Why must a butterfly become an egg a second time and be born again?

One could argue that this makes sense in a world view that teaches that nature is full of spiritual object lessons; but it doesn't make sense in a world view that teaches everything happens by chance, and the most advantageous processes survive while less efficient ones go extinct.

More Examples

There are lots of other things that don't make sense in light of evolution. We wrote about a few of them last September in the Stone Age Mutant Mammal Turtles essay. Breasts, pouches, and udders don't make sense. Radical changes in respiratory and circulatory systems don't make sense.

We are sure that if you think about it for a little while, you could come up with your own long list of things that don't make sense in light of evolution.

We admit that there are a few things that do make sense in light of evolution. Selfishness, murder, rape, deceit, cannibalism, and racism, come immediately to mind. If evolution were true, these traits would help in the battle for survival, and would eventually manifest themselves in the surviving species. But just because people murder and commit rape doesn't prove that evolution is true. There could be another explanation for this behavior.

Be Skeptical

Don't just accept the party line. Get into the habit of asking yourself, "Does this biological observation make sense in light of evolution?" In most cases we believe that you will find that it doesn't. Scientists are wasting their time trying to make sense of something that will never make sense. Even in those cases where scientists come up with a somewhat plausible explanation for how something that didn't happen happened, that explanation will be wrong. Wrong explanations are worthless, no matter how plausible they seem.

Footnotes:

1. For a more detailed explanation of the monarch's life cycle, including some excellent pictures, see From Darkness to Light to Flight (Monarch-the Miracle butterfly) by Jules H. Poirier. (Cr+)